New fisheries minister directed to focus on sustainable waters

iPolitics
By Charlie Pinkerton

Sustaining Canada’s waters dominates the list of responsibilities for the Trudeau government’s new Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Jonathan Wilkinson.

The North Vancouver MP is also charged with driving innovation in Canada’s fishing and aquaculture economy and upgrading the Coast Guard fleet.

“With the world’s longest coastline, Canada must have a world-leading plan to protect it and marine species at risk,” says the minister’s new mandate letter.

The minster is directed to implement and develop the Oceans Protection Plan, advance Bill C-68 – the reform of the Fisheries Act, which aims to restore lost protections, to achieve the government’s goal of protecting 10 per cent of its marine and coastal areas by 2020, protect Canada’s fresh water, restore salmon stocks in the Fraser River, create a healthy future for Pacific salmon by  2019 the International Year of the Salmon and to formalize the moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s North Coast.

Trudeau asks Wilkinson to “include initiatives that create and sustain good middle class jobs, leverage new technologies, and ensure the long-term sustainability of Canada’s oceans economy.”

As for outfitting Canada’s Coast Guard, Wilkinson is asked to work with the Minister of Procurement to ensure Canada’s waters are safely navigable. The Coast Guard is to also maintain shipping routes, defend Canadian sovereignty and support exploration. Canada’s Coast Guard has several procurements underway in a range of different stages. The largest of these is a new $1.3 billion Polar Icebreaker, for which the government plans to award a contract in 2021. It will be built in Vancouver and will be Canada’s largest icebreaker and one of the most powerful in the world, according to the government’s plan.

Wilkinson was appointed to the position last month as part of the prime minister’s cabinet shuffle.
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Dominic LeBlanc held the role before his move to Intergovernmental Affairs and Northern Development. LeBlanc’s move from the file came after the so-called ClamScam controversy, in which a lucrative surf clam licence was awarded to a company with ties to several Liberal MPs including LeBlanc himself. The department has cancelled the licence.

READ MORE: ​https://ipolitics.ca/2018/08/28/new-fisheries-minister-directed-to-focus-on-sustainable-waters/